Stay
by Mutt-Head
Summary: Naruto knows he might never be this close to Sakura again. He shuts his eyes tight and fiercely, fiercely wishes. He wishes she’d said: stay. Oneshot. First attempt at Naru/Saku. Read & review, please.


_**Stay**_

_**Summar**__y__**: **_Naruto knows he might never be this close to Sakura again. He shuts his eyes tight and fiercely, fiercely wishes. He wishes she'd said: _stay_. Oneshot. First attempt at Naru/Saku. R & R, please.

_**Disclaime**__r: _Don't own Naruto.

_**A/N**_**:** I love reading Naru/Saku, although I've never tried writing it before. As with most of my pieces, this here is a oneshot, a plot bunny that wouldn't leave me alone until it was worked through and up. Tell me what you think, please.

Oh, also – takes place in the current manga chapters, except that Naruto doesn't run off to find Nagato. That's all.

* * *

Their faces are so close that he can feel her breath against his throat. Her body is pressed up against his own where they lie on the cot, but in this moment, the feel of her soft, hot skin against his own cannot distract him from the sight of his azure eyes reflected in her green, green ones.

He has never been this close to Sakura; physically, mentally.

And he knows he might never be this close to her again.

From what he can remember of last night, the world outside this small tent did not exist. There was only him and his violent, shifting rage, a rage he did not seek to reign in check because at least it overwhelmed the ache he knew was underneath it all.

And there was Sakura, her hands glowing green with healing chakra that was futile where he was concerned – his body had already healed – and similarly colored emerald eyes that contained all the pain he wanted to forget.

He remembers this.

He was pacing, and she was standing still, and then her hands were on his, quietly asking him to calm down, and then he had pulled her against his body, his lips fiercely crushing her petal-soft ones, suppressing her words, and then they had fallen back onto his uncomfortable, rock-hard cot…

And now they are here.

With a chuunin outside the flap to his tent, bearing cheerful news in the early dawn light.

_Knock, knock. _

"Uzumaki-san!"

He hadn't looked into her eyes all night. Not when he tore her dusty, sweaty, clothes off her body. Not when he kissed her bruisingly and her hands fisted painfully in his blonde curls.

His gaze hadn't lifted to meet hers when his forehead was balanced against hers, her moans were stifled by his mouth, and he was inside her, her back was arching upwards. Not when they'd exploded and Sakura's name had ripped out through his lips over and over again into the quiet, deathly-still night, not when her own gasps filled his ears with the broken syllables of his name.

_Knock. _

"Uzumaki-san! Naruto! I have important news!"

Over and over again until they had fallen into an exhausted slumber, his nose buried in her carnation hair, her arms around his neck, face against his chest. Blue eyes never once meeting their green counterparts.

_Until now._

_Knock. Knock, knock._

In her eyes, he imagines he can see the world stripped bare.

They hold his pain, his anger. As if through the course of the night he had released into her all the violent rage that had made him move so roughly within her, touch her with such little tenderness…

"Hinata-sama is awake, Uzumaki-san! She recovered consciousness only a few minutes ago, and sh-she's asking for you!"

Only because they are so close can he perceive, no, _feel_ against his soaked skin the almost indiscernible hitch in her otherwise regular breathing.

But her gaze is steady, unwavering. A slight smile in the way her eyes are crinkling at the corners, and he wishes that, when they had the moment, he had looked up and seen whether he had managed to make them laugh.

Then again, he tells himself, it's just as well. Last night, you probably made her cry.

_Knock, knock._

"Naruto-san! Are you awake? Naruto-san, you must-"

"I'll be right there!" His voice cracks a little as he glances over his shoulder. "Just… go, I'll be there in just a little while!"

He thinks he can almost feel the chuunin hesitating outside, before he hears an assenting, jumbled murmur and a soft rustling as the young boy moves away quickly.

Naruto turns back to Sakura, hesitating no more to look into her eyes. Her green gaze meets his as steadily as ever, and his hand leaves its position on the pillow to reach up and gently cup the side of her face.

And yet… there is a sudden veil between them that was not there only a few moments ago.

She blinks; and it's as if her eyes have swallowed all the many emotions and thoughts that they were brimming to the full with only an instant ago.

Naruto suddenly feels as though his throat is dry. He swallows, and in a voice that's hoarser than ever, manages to say, "Sakura…"

This is it.

He knows that this is the moment that will decide the course his future is going to take. Her words are going to decide whether he leaves this tent to visit Hinata Hyuuga, who _loves him_, or not.

And somehow, Naruto doesn't know what he wants Sakura to say… He is unsure, still, of whether he will be happier if she says he should go see Hinata, or if this place right here, by her side, is where his heart feels most content.

He has never felt more like a coward. All of last night, he didn't look into her eyes.

And now, he's begging her to decide for him.

Sakura's lips quirk upwards in a gentle smile. Naruto's heart almost skips a beat, and he is amazed: last night erased any physical boundaries between the two; they blurred together as one so many times, but yet a gesture so simple as a smile from her still sets his heart racing.

She leans into his hand, bringing her own upwards to cup his cheek, and something inside his starts falling into place, piecing together, and he wants to say, _Wait…_

But she speaks.

"Go."

Blue meets green meets the shattering of the only time he has ever felt complete.

She is still smiling. Her eyes are open, but for all they tell or show him, they might as well be closed.

"Go, Naruto," she whispers again, brushing softly at the hair at his temple.

And then her hand drops away.

Hesitantly, he pulls his own hand away from her face. She doesn't turn away, and, feeling numb, he slowly gets up from the cot. She watches him as he finds his clothes. Mechanically dresses himself. Puts on his headband.

And leaves without sparing her a second glance.

In the mild light outside his tent, Naruto leans against a tree and tries to breathe. He shuts his eyes tight against the dappled light and fiercely, fiercely wishes.

He wishes he'd looked into her eyes last night. Wishes he hadn't looked to her for answers just now.

He wishes she'd said: _Stay. _


End file.
